Migrating an affiliate program from one tracking solution to another can be a complex and daunting task if the proper planning isn’t put in place at the start of your journey.
Ensuring a seamless transition for your affiliates is crucial to maintaining affiliate trust and your continued program’s success. However, there are some common mistakes that can occur during this process, potentially leading to data loss, tracking issues, and miscommunications with affiliates that we’d like to help you avoid.
In this article, we will discuss the common failures that our team have identified that can happen during a typical affiliate program migration. With 100’s of customized and complex affiliate program migrations completed by our development team and our customer support team, we know how stressful this can be when not managed correctly.
This article explores some of the common things that can go wrong and what to do when they do.
Common Failures That Occur in Affiliate Program Migrations
Incomplete Data Migration:
One of the most critical failures is the loss of historical data during the migration process from one platform to another. Incomplete data migration can result from overlooking crucial data points or incorrect mapping of data fields during the planning process. Losing historical data can impact affiliate reporting, commissions, and overall program performance analysis.
Tracking Discrepancies:
Moving from one tracking solution to another can lead to tracking discrepancies. Different tracking systems may use distinct methodologies, leading to variations in click-through rates, conversions, and attributed sales. These discrepancies can cause confusion and frustration among affiliates, affecting their confidence in the program.
Broken Links and URLs:
Incorrectly mapped or broken links and URLs can cause affiliates to lose commission on valid referrals. Broken tracking links result in untracked sales and potential revenue loss, undermining trust between affiliates and the program.
Commission Structure Errors:
During the migration, commission structures may be misconfigured or lost, leading to inaccurate payout calculations for affiliates. This can lead to payment disputes and dissatisfaction among affiliates.
Lack of Testing and Quality Assurance:
Failing to thoroughly test the new tracking solution before going live can lead to unforeseen issues, negatively affecting affiliates’ performance and earnings.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it does identify the most common problems we’ve seen clients experience when making a program migration from one platform to another.
Things you can do to avoid a Failure to Launch
Do a Comprehensive Data Audit:
Before migration, conduct a thorough audit of all historical data and ensure all relevant information is accounted for. Have a clear understanding of what data needs to be migrated and ensure it is properly mapped to the new system. Clean up anything that you don’t want to migrate or that you want to shut down. There is no point moving all the chaos you’re trying to get rid of to the new platform you want to set up. So use this time to audit your program thoroughly, communicate with affiliates that are dormant and go through your creative library to ensure you’re not moving old dead campaigns mistakenly.
Perform Test Migrations:
Conduct several test migrations to identify and address potential issues before the full migration. Test the tracking links, data accuracy, and commission calculations to ensure everything is functioning as expected. End to end you must be comfortable that your platform and the new tracking solution are talking to each other accurately and reflecting this data in the affiliates reporting the same way too.
Collaborate with your Affiliates:
Keep your affiliates informed about the migration process and provide them with ample time to prepare for the changes. Gather feedback from affiliates and address their concerns to create a smoother transition. Keep open dialogue and keep asking for feedback until the migration completes.
Utilize Redirects:
Implement URL redirects to ensure that existing affiliate links continue to track correctly after migration. Sometimes affiliates won’t change all their links, they’ll forget they had links on random pages out there on the internet so you need to make sure you can still capture all remnant traffic that might be finding it’s way to your site and convert it! This will prevent broken links and maintain tracking integrity.
Offer Training and Support:
Provide training sessions and support to affiliates for using the new tracking system effectively. Address their queries promptly and offer assistance during the transition phase.
Managing Correspondence with Affiliates During Challenges
Despite careful planning, unforeseen issues may arise during migration. When faced with challenges during a migration project, be proactive at all times. Mistakes can happen, even the smallest things you can’t always control. The things you can – you need to be proactive with – communication is one of the area’s that is often ignored or overlooked, yet so important to prioritize especially when a program migration begins.
Here are some top tips to help manage the fall out when problems arise, and how to get you started off on the right footing to fix them as they do.
Be ready to deliver Immediate Communication:
Inform affiliates promptly about any issues that may affect their tracking or earnings. Transparency and timely communication are key to building trust. When you tell affiliates there’s a problem you give them time to react and this could impact how they are making money depending on the traffic sources they are working with. So be ready to send out bulk emails or 1-1 as the need occurs..
Provide Regular Status Updates:
Keep affiliates updated on the progress of issue resolution and provide an estimated time frame for a resolution. If you have a message of the day section or a weekly email or a chat group in Facebook or Telegram make sure the entire team can access it and work with partners when needs arise to communicate. During a migration you simply can’t over communicate at any time.
Offer Individual Support:
Offer personalized support to top affiliates who may be experiencing specific issues. Work closely with them to find solutions and ensure their needs are met. Set yourself a SLA time to have team cover on standby after hours as issues arise.
Compensation and Remediation:
In cases where affiliate earnings are affected due to migration issues, consider providing fair compensation or remediation to maintain goodwill. A little goes a long way to show appreciation for time or money lost. Being proactive and offering compensation and support can go a long way to keep your partner’s trust.
Conclusion
Affiliate program migration can be a complex process, but with careful planning, thorough testing, and effective communication, common mistakes can be avoided. A successful migration ensures the continuity of program performance, safeguards affiliate relationships, and fosters trust and loyalty.
By being proactive in addressing issues and offering support to affiliates, you can navigate through challenges and ensure a seamless transition to the new tracking solution. Working with experts who are experienced in performing program migrations can be a good idea too – so if you want help and need an experienced team to guide you through your next move, get in touch with our team today and find out how we can help!
Further Reading:
